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medusaworms

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1. Mantis shrimp?
   by bbc/cs.rice.edu (Benjamin Chase) (5 Dec 91)

Mantis shrimp?

by bbc/cs.rice.edu (Benjamin Chase)
Date: 5 Dec 91
Newsgroup: rec.aquaria

If the piles of stuff you see are a fairly fine powder, off-white,
appearing in little mounds, or cascades down the side of your rock
(and then collecting in a slightly less-organized mound), then I'd
guess you've got something like medusa worms.  They're harmless
detritus feeders.  Look for long, thin tentacles (really more like
filaments) reaching outward across the rock, spreading from some focus
near or above the pile of debris.

If this is what you've got, thank the worm for collecting and eating
all the debris, and vacuum up the pile of white crud when you can.

Disclaimer: I've never had a mantis shrimp, so I don't know _what_
telltale traces they leave behind.
--
"I'm going to respond to this one thread in an attempt to cut down on
 the amount of responding I do to this thread." - John F. Haugh II

	Ben Chase <bbc-at-rice.edu>, Rice University, Houston, Texas

	Up to Marine/Reefs The Krib	This page was last updated 29 October 1998